What a busy day today! The departing group was on there way bright and early. Many of us remaining were up to say good bye again but I had a terrible night and slept through most of it. I hope they are having a good safe time together. I will miss them not being here and look forward to seeing them at home.

I managed to actually do a lot today but I still have the cruddy cold. I can hardly make myself take the GSE because it tastes so bitter. Poor Steve has been in bed most of the day feeling pretty miserable and Angie said he had a hard night too.

We were moved out of our room temporarily so the men could get in and put up the pine slat ceiling boards. Pepere, Chris, Brent, and Jon worked on it most of the day. This afternoon it was pouring rain and I was out in the kitchen with the girls doing school work and I heard a funny cracking noise! I ran into our room and all the men were laughing and standing on the ground. They had all previously been on homemade ladders and scaffolding nailing up the boards. Well the homemade ladder gave way and cracked; Pepere road the ladder down, Chris jumped down to the floor and I guess they said Jon was temporarily hanging from a rafter. The ladder was about 3 feet shorter and we were very relieved that no one was hurt.

I had Lisungu help me with laundry today because it had piled up from not feeling well. She washed most of it and I did the undies and socks, then I rinsed and ran all the clothes through the wringer and hung them up. Well we enough time to barely finish and be late to lunch. I just had eaten and walked down to the sewing school and the rains came so all the clothes had to be brought in and dried; only they don’t really dry inside.

I took the girls down to be measured for skirts and blouses along with a shatangi. They were very excited about it and next week they will have a dress made and I would like to have some skirts made. It was very comical trying to communicate with all the ladies about what we wanted but they are very kind and like to sew for us.

Okay, I had dinner duty tonight and all the kids had been begging for mac & cheese so I attempted it. Well it could make you rethink mac & cheese for life! First of all cooking at this elevation is very different from at home so the noodles essentially were goo. Next I used soy milk because that was all we had and let me tell you it tasted like soymilk goo only cheese colored. All the kids ate it and said it was good but when I asked if I should use soymilk again they all said “NO”. I will have to rethink bush style mac & cheese before I attempt it again.

Good thing we had potatoes and gravy with fruit to accompany the interesting pasta dish.

We just had tonights entertainment! As I was typing in the kitchen Mat approached from behind and said “mom, there is a mouse in the kitchen”! Immediately my feet flew up and I shrieked “quick, get it”! That brought the onslaught of all the children scurrying to the kitchen and many of them trying to catch it. It ran back and forth with mainly the boys in hot pursuit while the girls and I shrieked some more. I believe I said something like hurry up before it crawls up my leg. About that time Jon arrived on the scene and told the boys to open up the kitchen door and herd it out and that worked right away. I then turned around and found Bella up on a tote stacked two high and Bethany up on a chair. So now we have had our excitement for the night; it sure makes me glad I’m in a bug tent so the rodents can’t come close while we’re sleeping.

Tomorrow morning I will be going to Makete with Shari. She needs some things and I would like to try and find pineapples. More and more people in the group are asking for them, plus I like to see other places while I’m here. So I will update you all on the trip there tomorrow night.